Reply to "Relocation of temp gauge"

First, when you painted the surge tank, did you clean off the sender area and the tank mount area? The sender must be electrically grounded thru the 1/4" pipe threads to work. The tank is definitely NOT the place to put this sender. It belongs in the front of the block under the thermostat and the plug found there in unmodified Panteras can be used to plug the surge tank hole. The gauge will not read correctly if the water level drops much in the surge tank. Instead, it reads the air temp above the water, giving a false sense of security- right up to engine seizure. also, Ford dealers added a 1/2 watt resistor in the gauge wire to "adjust" the gauge reading to a lower number. Do not necessarily believe the gauge reading! Second, there were thermostats in the radiator right header tank that turned off & on the two fans, one at 180 degrees and one at 196. The first one tended to run all the time, so many wired it direct. Stock tank thermostats also fail regularly. Blocking the warmup channel under the thermostat with a 3/4" freeze plug is OK for summer use everywhere and winter in warmer areas. It allows one to use non-351C thermostats successfully but lengthens warm up times (& engine wear)in colder temps.